Loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari have begun moves to take control of the Department of State Services ahead of the 2019 general elections, acco
Loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari have begun moves to take control of the Department of State Services ahead of the 2019 general elections, according to The Punch. It was gathered that the loyalists, who were working in tandem with a cabal in the Presidency, had already given the acting DG of the Service, Mathew Seiyefa, who is due for retirement in July 2019, a signal that he might not be in office during the conduct of the general elections next year by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Buhari’s loyalists are believed not to be comfortable with him, having hailed from a state where the President is not very popular. Mathew Seiyefa hails from Bayelsa State. Besides, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who Buhari defeated in the bitterly contested 2015 presidential election, hails from the same state.
“We cannot, therefore, trust such a man to head the security apparatus that is very vital for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, in which President Buhari will still be a candidate,” a source said.
Since the appointment of the acting DG, there had been serious gang-up against him by a cabal in the Presidential Villa. It was learnt that members of the cabal had yet to get over the shocking removal of the erstwhile DG of the Service, Mr Lawal Daura, by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) while acting as the President in Muhammadu Buhari’s absence. Daura is from Katsina State, the home state of President Buhari. Osinbajo had asked Daura to hand over to the most senior officer in the agency when he (Daura) was sacked on August 7 for deploying operatives of the agency to block the National Assembly. The sacking was said to have come to those close to Buhari as a shock.
Members of the cabal, which is allegedly headed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, have remained unrelenting in their determination to have a say in who heads the agency. The source added that Mathew Seiyefa had been asked by Kyari to also reverse all the appointments he made when he assumed office.
“Some officers have been grumbling over interference by politicians in the workings of the agency,” according to the source
It was also gathered that there were some aggrieved members of the agency, who were currently working at the Villa using their contacts within the corridors of power to help the cabal achieve its aim. The officers are said to be using the Chief Security Officer to Buhari, Bashir Abubakar, to actualise their plans. Those serving officers, four in number (names withheld) and who are involved in the game plan are said to be in the assistant directorate cadre. A security source at the Presidency said, there are some aggrieved elements bent on removing the acting DG and bring in another person or even have the sacked Daura return to his position.
